Aparna Mathur is a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, where she researches tax policy, labor markets, policies to improve economic opportunity, and social safety net programs.

Before joining Urban, Mathur was a senior research manager in economic policy at Amazon, a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, she was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where she directed the bipartisan AEI-Brookings Project on Paid Family and Medical Leave. She was recognized in the Politico 50 in 2017 for her work advancing paid leave policy.

Mathur has published extensively in leading economics journals, such as the Journal of Public Economics and National Tax Journal; testified before congressional committees on tax policy, income inequality, paid leave and economic mobility in the US; and written for Forbes. Her work has been featured in major media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and she has provided expert commentary on NPR's Marketplace, CNBC, CNN, and C-SPAN. She previously served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and currently serves on the boards of the National Academy of Social Insurance, the National Economists Club, and the Convergence Collaborative, as well as the University of Maryland's Board of Visitors.

Mathur received her PhD in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.